Trauma

According to the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN), (2018) students that have experienced complex trauma whether real or perceived may experience an activated response of fight, flight, or freeze and as a result those students often exhibit challenging behaviors and reactions.

Kathy Hepburn (n.d.) created a tutorial for the Center for Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (ECMHC) where she states that trauma can take many forms in children, but the effects of trauma may be grouped into the following categories: physical, cognitive, social and emotional, language and communication, and learning. Hepburn (n.d.) provided examples of potential symptoms that children may have after experiencing trauma.

In the Heart of Learning and Teaching, Wolpow et al. (2016, page 3) states "Each day we work with students who are struggling with high levels of stress, abuse and/or who have been separated from their families to be placed in foster care homes. Schools did not expect students who survived Hurricane Katrina to return to academics without some accommodation for the trauma they had experienced. How could it be that when it come to these other forms of trauma we expect our students to play chess in a hurricane? Are we expecting students who are dealing with trauma to succeed academically while remain unaware of the chaotic realities in their lives outside of school".  "Students dealing with trauma and trying to play chess in hurricanes...

• are two-and-one times more likely to fail a grade;
• score lower on standardized achievement test scores:
• have more receptive or expressive language difficulties
• are suspended or expelled more often; and,
• are designated to special education more frequently" (Wolpow et al., 2016, page 5). 

Symptoms of complex trauma are complex and developmental. Complex trauma is persistent over time, and involves a violation of basic safety and/or support normally expected personal relationships. Children with traumatic stress cased by complex trauma are  operating in the survival mode or survival in the moment. Survival mode is governed by the parts of the brain that evaluate threats, and sacrifices context for speed of response.  When making decisions its outside of the brains consciousness thought, and mobilizes the bodies fight, flight or freeze response. When in survival mode, higher order brain functions are temporarily put on hold, verbal encoding stops, actions and responses are generated at lower levels (limbic systems) of the brain (Wolpow et al., 2016, page 10).

How Does Trauma Effect Learning?

To be successful in academics students need to be able to focus, organize, comprehend information, engage memory for the purpose of learning, and to trust those around them. In The Heart of Learning and Teaching by Wolpow et al. (2016, pg. 12-13) they provide a summary of the impact of trauma on learning. The following is included in their summary;

• Traumatic stress effects a students ability to form relationships, regulate emotions and to learn the cognitive skills needed to learn. 
• Hyper-arousal, intrusion or constriction effect a students ability to process verbal/nonverbal and written information. This may limit a students ability to understand or respond to classroom instruction.
• Expressive and receptive language abilities may be effected. Students may have difficulty articulating emotional needs, feelings, and struggle to relate to others, or convey abstractions. 
• Students may have difficulty organizing materials sequentially, remember and/or store information, and limit understanding of cause and effect relationships. 
• Trauma may effect a students ability to define boundaries which can lead to issues making independent choices, expressing preferences, and gaining perspective. These issue can make it difficult for the student to solve problems from different points of view, infer information from text, work in groups, and show empathy to others. 
• Executive functions are effected making things such as goal setting, anticipating consequences, developing plans, making and fulfilling goals, and reflecting on processes. 
• Students may have difficulty transitioning from one activity to another, room to room, or from preferred activities to non-preferred activities. 
• Behavior attributes that may be seen are aggression, withdrawal, defiance, perfectionism, reactivity, impulsiveness, hyperactivity, and/or rapid and unexpected emotional fluctuations. 

Trauma Indicators

Six Guiding Principles To A Trauma-Informed Approach

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention in collaboration with SAMHSA's National Center for Trauma-Informed care (NCTC) developed a new training on the role of trauma informed care to increase awareness of the impact of trauma.  There are six Guiding principles that should guide a trauma informed approach. 

• Safety
• Trustworthiness
• Peer Support
• Collaboration and Mutuality
• Empowerment, Voice and Choice
• Cultural, Historical and Gender Issues